May 26, 2024
Life Altering Perspective
- Lindon Faull
Sermon Notes
“Men nearest to the church are often furthest from God.” – Charles Spurgeon
Has the love God has for you ever helped you to turn an enemy into a friend?
Psalm 69:33 NIV
The Lord … does not despise his captive people.
Luke 14:7 NIV
When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table.
Luke 14:13-14 NIV
“But when you give a banquet, invite, the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Luke 14:15 NIV
When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”
Luke 14:21b-24 NIV
“… The owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’
‘Sir, the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’
Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”
Jeremiah 5:25 NIV
“… your sins have deprived you of good.”
Luke 8:39a NIV
“Return home and tell how much God has done for you.”
John 21:17b-18
Jesus said, ‘Feed my sheep. Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”
“Peter would build the rest of his life on these words. This calling moment for Peter represents the reversal of everything we have come to believe life should be about – especially in the American dream. For too long, we have been sold a vision of life promising more and more freedom the older we become; more money, more choices, more affluence, then retirement. What Jesus gives Peter and us – is the opposite. The remainder of Peter’s life will be marked not by going where he wanted to go but where Jesus wanted him to go. He won’t even clothe himself. His future isn’t marked by more freedom but increased faithfulness. Henri Nouwen called this ‘downward mobility’. The American dream is a mirage marked by believing everything will go up and right like a booming stock exchange. But Peter’s future won’t be up and to the right. He will spend the remainder of his life serving the church and suffering for the gospel. Jesus is reversing the American dream. In the Kingdom, the more we progress, the more we bend our ways to Jesus.” - A. J. Swoboda, The Gift of Thorns
“If you want to change the world, change what is in front of you.” - Eric Cooper
The Christian life is a feast!
Matthew 10:39 NIV
“Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”
Luke 7:30 NIV
But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.